Health care in Syria is in the crosshair of bombs and missiles. It has collapsed.

Let me be clear: attacks on civilians and hospitals must stop.

The normalization of such attacks is intolerable.

The latest attack came just three days ago, on February 15, in Ma’arat Al Numan, Idlib Province.

At least 25 people were killed, among them 9 medical personnel and 16 patients. Ten others were wounded.

According to accounts from medical staff onsite, four missiles struck the hospital in an attack lasting about two minutes.

Forty minutes later, after rescuers arrived, the site was bombed again.

These secondary strikes—in military jargon known as double taps*– that target rescue and medical personnel trying to save the injured are outrageous.

*A double-tap attack refers to an attack where one area is bombed, then either more bombing follows on the same area when the rescue teams arrive, or the nearest hospital is bombed when the wounded are transferred there for treatment.

But it didn’t stop there.

A nearby hospital that received many of the wounded from the first strike was itself hit an hour later.

Equally shocking are the 101 aerial or shelling attacks that struck MSF-supported facilities over the last 13 months.

Several were struck twice after the arrival of medical and rescue personnel.

Patients have told us they’re now too afraid to go to hospitals.

With attacks more intense in recent days and weeks, many thousands of people—including women and children—are fleeing for their lives.

One-hundred thousand people are caught in northern Syria, near Azaz.

They’re trying to escape the escalating air strikes and ground combat. They are trapped between the Turkish border and a frontline.

While Turkey has made notable efforts to host millions of Syrian refugees, a potential civilian catastrophe now sits across its border. Meanwhile, in the south, a similar situation is unfolding at the now-closed border with Jordan.